Boeing Co.'s $15 billion contract to build U.S. Air Force rescue helicopters should be put back out to bid, the Government Accountability Office said following protests by Lockheed Martin Corp. and United Technologies Corp.
The GAO said today in an e-mailed statement it recommended the Air Force reopen discussions and request revised proposals. If after reviewing the new bids, ``Boeing's proposal no longer represents the best value to the government, the agency should terminate its contract,'' the GAO said.
Lockheed Martin, the world's largest defense company, and United Technologies' Sikorsky unit protested Boeing's Nov. 9 award, saying the Air Force didn't uniformly apply the criteria used to evaluate the three bids. Boeing's order for 141 HH-47 helicopters, a variant of its twin-rotor Chinook family, was picked to replace Sikorsky's Pave Hawk aircraft. The award was put on hold during the GAO review.
Read the entire Bloomberg report here.
(The Gouge:SC)
